About Wry

Some of the posts are for students, and others are written for host families. Feel free to post comments. Email me at WryExchange at gmail dot com. This blog isn't updated. I have retired from high school exchange volunteering, but some of the information may still be relevant.
Former About Wry: I try to help our world, one person at a time, as a volunteer for High School Foreign Exchange Students. I have depression, DID, and ADD. My thoughts are non-linear, my memory sucks, and I'm snarky.

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The boy’s plane leaves 6am next Wednesday. His return preparations are on schedule. He hasn’t started packing yet, of course. It’s way too early for that. But the changes in sleeping patterns, random surliness, reconnecting with friends back home, increased smoking, and lack of communication are all appearing.

We went to a zoo today. I thought it would be a nice day to hang out together, have fun, and talk. We didn’t speak for almost the entire 2 hour drive to the zoo. And it wasn’t a comfortable silence. It slowly thawed at the zoo, but it didn’t make it to warm. I took one photo of the boy-a profile shot as he was near a rhino. He deleted it. So much for my memory of the day. It was the first time he saw a rhino, and I just wanted to remember the moment.

Most of the students get pissy when it’s time to leave. They do it to protect themselves. If they fight with people and decide they don’t love or like the people they leave behind, it won’t hurt to say ‘Good-bye.’ Yeah, that’s never a good plan. I understand it, know it’s coming, and still want to strangle him.

We haven’t started the last minute panic shopping yet for laptops, Ipods, snickers, Wii, all the necessities. We will attempt to squish a year’s worth of shopping into 2 seventy pound checked bags, a messenger bag, and a carry-on. So not gonna happen.